Google’s project is in the right country – but the wrong place and under the wrong government

Finland meets all demands of the global data industry: political stability, clean energy, and a cool climate. Yet Google’s project to locate data centres in Finland has been celebrated through the lens of outdated regional policy and factory-era thinking – as a facility meant to spark local hopes of jobs and tax revenue. Those hopes tend to evaporate at the moment when the political purpose is fulfilled.

But a data centre is not a factory. It can be part of a modern energy system. When a server farm is built deep in the woods, its excess heat literally vanishes into thin air. At the same time, it strains the power grid: long transmission distances increase the need for investments, energy losses, and vulnerabilities – ultimately driving up costs across the system. Intelligent energy policy should avoid exactly that.

Now even political stability has broken down. Major corporations do not want to operate in a country where decisions swing yearly depending on government infighting or the moods of lobbyists. The unpredictability of taxation sends a stronger risk signal than its actual level.

More serious still, the government plans to tighten data centre taxation just as the EU’s Green Industrial Deal recommends minimum taxes to speed up the green transition. Wind power production is already being throttled to keep electricity prices from turning negative.

If there is occasionally too much clean electricity, its use should not be taxed down but directed wisely. A data centre can serve exactly that purpose – a stable, long-term recipient absorbing surplus electricity and returning it as useful waste heat.

Finland should strengthen its position as a dream destination for data investments: anchoring companies to unwavering stability and long-term commitments, ideally encouraging them to build their own wind or small-scale nuclear power for operational use. Beyond data business, such companies could offer balancing systems, energy storage, and district heating for growth centres – including a few in eastern Finland, which has been promised revitalisation.

Sweden and Norway have already decided this autumn to lower electricity taxes for data centres. As former minister Timo Harakka noted earlier this week, Finland risks doing the opposite: raising electricity tax just before its own study on the economic impact of data centres is completed. This is exactly what makes an investor’s nightmare state: decisions before data, and politics without careful consideration.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo repeats the word “pragmatic” like a self-fulfilling mantra, but his government is anything but – emotional, defensive, and reactive.

A pragmatic government would be the opposite of such fumbling: one that analyses future scenarios precisely, builds long-term strategies, and drives sustainability goals. A Nordic partner that populism cannot shake.

Markus Wasara